Being perfect

It was twenty years ago today…

Pee-Wee Goes To Sturgis

The D*ruffalo Foodwatch

We’re still smiling like happy children from last night’s feast at Little Otik. Grand!

The D*ruffalo Chalgawatch

The Marshall Plan

Mr. Jefferson currently speaks out here (we await some other Chicago legends to present the completely different side of the story, as per usual). In the meantime, here are some excerpts:

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I heard it in my head on my job at the Post Office, but with female vocals, and different words. I got home and did the piano, bass and drums. I thought it was hot as hell, and booked a session at Lito Manlucu’s studio. Called up my buddies from the Post Office (Curtis McClain, Rudy Forbes, Thomas Carr) wrote the verse and the backgrounds in the studio. Recording and mixing time was about 3 hours total. They thought it sucked. I thought it was the hottest shit the dancefloor would ever hear, but I have quite the ego.

The night, I took the song 1st to the Sheba Baby club, where Mike Dunn, Tyree Cooper, and Hugo Hutchinson were DJ’ing. This was before they all had records out, and I was known as Virgo. (loved that nickname!) They loved the song and I gave them a cassette copy, but they said it wasn’t House music because of the piano. From there i drove to the Music Box to give Ron Hardy a copy. Outside in the car i played it on my car system for some friends (One was K-Alexi) and I don’t think they were too impressed. I’d had about 15 unreleased songs playing in the Music Box at that time and they thought some of my other stuff was much hotter. They also said it wasn’t House Music because of the piano.

After that, I went into the Music Box and gave DJ Ron Hardy a copy while he was playing. I didn’t expect him to play it right away; usually i just gave him a copy and he’d listen to it later and maybe play it the next weekend. This time he put it in the cassette machine right away. I saw his head quickly go into a violent bobbing motion and I knew he liked the song. He immediately put it on and played it 6 times in a row, putting on a sound effects record while he rewound the tape.

From there it got to be the biggest song in the Music Box. Ron told me not to give it to anybody else, and I held off for awhile, but there were other DJ’s in the city that wanted it and finally I gave in when Frankie Knuckles, Ron Hardy’s biggest rival got a copy of it. Prior to that,I took it to Trax Records to press it up on my own label. At that time Larry Sherman, the owner, considered himself a House music expert because he’d previously put out Jesse Saunders stuff and also 4 of my records. He hated the song and said it wasn’t House music because of the piano. I didn’t care and paid him to press the record up.

13 months passed before he finally pressed it up, but there were some things that happened before that………………….

After Frankie Knuckles got a copy of it, it seemed the flood gates opened. I had to give Lil Louis and Fast Eddie copies, because Eddie lived 2 doors down from me on my block and Lil Louis lived on the next block. Mike Dunn, Tyree Cooper, and Hugo Hutchinson already had copies. Pretty soon it seemed like every DJ in Chicago had copies…………….some really bad and some passable, but crowds freaked every time it came on.

International DJ’s played it to and this is how I tracked down how they got copies, after talking to the DJ’s and members of the press:

1. Frankie Knuckies got his copy from my friend Sleezy D.
2. Frankie Knuckles’ best friend was Larry Levan from New York’s Paradise Garage. At that time, DJ’s from all over the world would fly to New York to hear what Larry played, because whatever was popular there became hits.
3. Somehow DJ Alfredo from Ibiza got a copy of it, and started playing it in Ibiza.
4. English DJ’s Paul Oakenfold, Danny Rampling, and Jazzy M got copies. Pete Tong and Paul “Trouble” Anderson got copies too, but I’m not sure if they got it at the same time as the 1st 3 or not.
5. Once the English DJ’s started playing, things got weird, because the press got involved. England was quick to jump on a new music trend and got on it right away. “Move Your Body” had the words “Gotta have House music, all night long”, and with that “House” music, you can’t go wrong!” so naturally, the next task was finding out what house music was and getting the full scoop.

I started hearing English accents asking me for interviews when I answered the phone. I thought it was my friends screwing with me, but damn, those accents sounded authentic. I did a few phone interviews and suddenly, a whole herd of British Press all flew to Chicago to interview any and everyone involved with House music. They sat in on sessions and took loads of pics. Of course, Larry Sherman considered himself the resident expert on House Music and offered to take all the press around to all the House music clubs in the city. At that time I’d tried everything to get Larry to press up Move Your Body, but he hated it and said it wasn’t House Music. It was because he said it wasn’t House music that I called it “The House Music Anthem”.I even paid him with my own money to press it up. and he still hadn’t done it.

Well, when Larry took the press around to all the House clubs, Move Your Body was the hottest song playing at every single club-on dirty cassettes. The day after he took the press around to all those clubs, Move Your Body was finally on vinyl.

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After Move Your Body got hot in the clubs, I stupidly thought I could do a better
version in a big studio. The DJ International version is a 24 track version recorded at Paragon in Chicago.

The Virgo EP was supposed to be 2 songs from me and 2 from Adonis and was supposed to be called “Virgo and Adonis”. “No Way Back” was supposed to be on there but Adonis pulled it when it got played at a party and he found out how hot it was. There was another song called “The Final Groove” that he wrote and he pulled that too, but it never came out. “My Space” and “R U Hot Enough” were last minute replacements.

*edit*Ooops! There was also a version of “Under You” called “The Pleasure Exchange” it had female vocals and breathing on it, kind of like a cross between “Sensuous Black Woman” and “Love To Love You Baby” that version never came out either. Hardy played it and copies of it are still floating around. Maybe Jamie will have it. I think Gene Hunt has a copy, but I’m not sure.

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I met Byron Stingily down at Trax records. He’d sang lead on a song called “Funny Love” by Dezz 7. I loved the words and found out he wrote them. From there we started working on songs together……..did about 5 that never came out. Among the ones that did come out were “Devotion” and I Can’t Stay Away”

“Devotion” came about when we were out on a double date. The girls went off on their own and we started singing about them. I went home and did the music, then let Byron hear it the next day. I told him it was the song we wrote last night and he didn’t believe it. After that we could write songs together over the phone just singing parts back and forth. Byron Burke and Herb Lawson were friends of Byron’s. Atlantic Records wanted to sign Byron as a solo act but he didn’t want to be on stage by himself. In fact, his 1st 10 shows as Ten City he performed with his eyes closed. Byron and Herb eventually got more involved in the songwriting process and took over on the 2nd album.

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Cole and Cliviles actually did that version the same year Move Your Body came out-1986. They didn’t have any records out at that time yet. It got pretty popular even before the 90′s I think. That version also preceded “Do It Properly”

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You wouldn’t believe the amount of grief I get from Jamie and other Chicago DJ’s about the “original” version of “The Jungle” that never came out…….I thought it was pretty shitty myself. Recently I remade the “original” version (it had different drums, no flute, and no strings) and gave it to Jamie. He seemed to like it so ask him how it compares. I’ll put it out next month.

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Someday, I wrote after watching the news one day. It sat around for a few months because I didn’t know who I was going to get to sing it. Curtis McClain was usually my 1st choice for songs, but we were constantly at each other’s throats while touring for Move Your Body, and I didn’t want to do him any favors.

A promoter named Billy Prest had taken really good care of us while touring the East Coast and asked me if could write a song for his singer, Ce Ce Rogers. He gave me a cassette of Ce Ce singing and I gave it a quick listen and told him I’d do it. I just “happened” to have Someday lying around and gave it to Billy. Made me look like a genius coming up with a song so fast instead of the screwup I actually was.

Billy immediately flew Ce Ce to Chicago to sing the leads. I had the music all recorded when he got into the studio. Billy had specifically instructed Ce Ce to not play keyboards around me, because he didn’t want me to get intimidated. Ce Ce was a Berkley grad and an awesome keyboard player. Ce Ce is also a born showoff and absolutely the most competitive person I’ve ever met in my life, and of course within the 1st minute of him getting in the studio he found a grand piano and was playing so great he could have intimidated Rachmaninov.

Didn’t phase me a bit and I told him when he was done to get in the vocal booth and sing.

I recorded Ce Ce’s warm up and told him to go back to his hotel. It was absolutely phenomenal. Ce Ce panicked and asked to re sing it. I said no at 1st, then finally gave in, but my mind was made up. I told Steve Frisk, the engineer to record him while I went to Macdonalds. When I came back, Ce Ce seemed a bit more satisfied with the second vocal. I took it home and listened to it, but the second vocal seemed a bit contrived compared to the 1st.

My next trip to the east coast, I let Merlin Bobb at Atlantic hear it and he signed it immediately. He also played it on the radio the night he got it.

Ce Ce panicked again and asked Billy and Atlantic to send him to Chicago to sing it one more time. Ce Ce flew to Chicago and re sang it, but this time I had Merlin backing me up that the original vocal sounded better and that’s what went on the record.

Ce Ce Rogers is absolutely, positively the greatest live performer I’ve ever seen in my life, period. No artist should ever follow his performance, I’ve seen singers totally destroyed after watching him sing. I’ve seen him sing to an audience of 3 and had them all standing with their hands in the air and screaming at the top of their lungs.

Anyway, he greatly helped record sales and what went down on record was a performance in the studio, not a production. It was an honor just to be a part of that session and watching him let loose like he did.

The Druffalo Hitwatch

Attention Laptop Perfomers:

The D*ruffalo Packagingwatch

Package:

Content:

We know it is carnival time there, but still this combo sent from Cologne is nothing but inspired.

Friedrich Goldmann

Now that he sadly passed away too soon, it is even more dear to our hearts to tell all the world about the sheer genius of Friedrich Goldmann.

There is a wonderful website now up with detailed info about his life and works, and you can listen to excerpts of his compositions, too.

Raiding The 21 Century

DJ Food – Raiding the 20th Century – Words & Music Expansion

(starring Paul morley and a cast of thousands)

The means of seduction

We were asked about our opinion on “The Seduction Of Ingmar Bergmann”. Well, it is a concept album about Ingmar Bergman by the Mael brothers, of course it is a masterpiece. Did you really expect anything else?